The surprise order from the Trump administration imposing a new $100,000 fee on some visas set off a day of frantic travel as workers, companies and foreign governments scrambled to respond to Washington's latest immigration crackdown.
By the time the White House clarified that existing holders of the H-1B visas for skilled workers were not affected, the chaos had already been sewn: U.S. allies expressed concern and their nationals abandoned holidays, business trips and plans to see their families as they raced back to America before the new rules took effect Sunday.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed the proclamation requiring companies to pay the fee to obtain the visas, which major tech companies rely on to fill high-skilled jobs.
I have strong feelings on this. Theoretically the H1B visa is for workers with skills not available from U.S. citizens and permanent residents. Back in the 1980s, I was attempting to hire software engineers. The qualifications were not that high but after advertising in Silicon Valley and Los Angeles we received a small number of applicants, almost all of whom were unqualified or not citizens or residents. The guy on the top of the "If we get desperate" stack was a South African with both EE and CS degrees. We wanted to hire him. The H1B process was slow and clumsy. Proving that there was no qualified person already here required a lot of advertising. Only one applicant was even close and he did not want to move to Silicon Valley.
Silicon Valley was a lovely place to live. Not yet expensive and with my friends when we went to Subway for lunch next to Computer Literacy bookstore and Fry's Electronics, we were in Nerd Valhalla.
Oh yes, that South African. We did eventually hire him. He was very skilled and became a good friend.
I later worked for a tech company that laid off hundreds of us while advertising for H1Bs with very ordinary job requirements. When I pointed this out, I was informed the ad ran in error. The hassle of H1B approval is greatly eased by high powered law firms who know how to work the system.
What's wrong with H1Bs? Many are probably useful additions to our workforce. They are generally working cheaper than Americans. I recall in the 1990s seeing articles about Russian software engineers working for Google in Silicon Valley for $1200/month, and living in cramped quarters like high-end illegal aliens. More workers means lower wages for all.
If you are here on an H1B visa, you cannot just change jobs. You are bound to that employer. Theoretically, you can get changed over to another employer but it is not easy. If your current employer lets you go, you need to exit almost immediately. This makes H1B employees easy to exploit.
A friend from Northern Ireland went to work for Micron as an H1B. During the little collapse of 2008, Micron laid him off. He had 10? or was it 90? days to leave America. He had bought a house here, so he had to sell it when the housing market had collapsed. He called this his "$100,000 American vacation." Some of suggested he learn Spanish and insist his name was Jose.
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